Meet the Teacher Night Made Easy!

It’s almost time for Meet the Teacher nights to commence around the country, and it has always been one of my very favorite nights of the year! I get so excited to meet all of my new students and their families.  This first impression is so important, and it can sometimes be a little bit overwhelming for everyone– teachers, students, and parents!  I have written before about how important it is to instill confidence and build rapport with parents and students at this first meeting.  You can read about how I do that HERE.

I’ve never really addressed how I actually set up my Meet the Teacher Night, and it’s always a little bit different from year to year. Last year, I tried my best to make Meet the Teacher night as simple and easy as possible. Here is how we set it up!

I met each family at the door so that I was able to interact with each family for a moment right when they walked into the room.  When nobody was walking in, I would roam the room and chat with whoever was already there.  When I met them at the door, I explained to my students that they would need to go to each of four stations and follow the directions there.  They did not have to go in order, but they needed to stop at each one. Here are my four stations:

First, they picked up the 7,000 papers that the school provides. 🙂

Finally, they did this little prompt (I think I got this idea from someone on IG last year! If it was you, please please let me know so that I can give you credit!).  They each had to write one thing they were excited about.  I left it up the first few days of school so that they could all read each other’s responses.

This Meet the Teacher Night set up was one of my favorites that I’ve ever done!  Kids and their parents had plenty to do while I greeted everyone, and they were there long enough that I had a chance to sit down and chat with all of the families.  It was very minimal set up on my part, too!  I’d highly recommend it.